Industrial Network Upgrade for Production Facility

Overview

A large FMCG production facility in Johannesburg relied on legacy serial-based fieldbus networks (Profibus, DeviceNet) and unmanaged Ethernet switches. The network experienced frequent disruptions — broadcast storms, IP conflicts, and device drop-offs — causing production stoppages that cost the facility significant revenue per hour of downtime.

The Challenge

The facility's OT network had grown organically over 15 years with no structured architecture. Multiple unmanaged switches created flat networks susceptible to broadcast storms. There was no network segmentation between process areas, no redundancy, and no monitoring. Fault finding was extremely difficult — electricians would visually trace cables and use trial-and-error to isolate issues. The network could not support the bandwidth requirements of new SCADA and vision inspection systems being deployed.

The Solution

Cretek performed a full OT network audit and designed a structured Industrial Ethernet architecture following the ISA-95/Purdue model. The network was segmented into secure zones with managed switches (Moxa EDR-810 and Siemens Scalance X208) configured with VLANs, RSTP ring redundancy, and port security. Profinet and EtherNet/IP networks were separated and optimised. A network monitoring system (PRTG) was deployed with alerts for switch health, port utilisation, and traffic anomalies. All changes were implemented during scheduled production shutdowns over a 6-week period.

Results

• 99.98% network uptime achieved since commissioning, with automatic ring recovery in under 50ms
• 60% reduction in network-related production downtime through structured architecture and monitoring
• OT security baseline established per IEC 62443 guidelines with role-based access and port security
• Network visibility with real-time monitoring, traffic analysis, and automated alerting
• Scalable architecture supporting future SCADA, vision, and IIoT system deployments

Technologies Used